The Rust producers just scored a major legal win

As The Hollywood Reporter revealed on September 16, 2022, the Los Angeles Superior Court ruled in favor of the “Rust” producers in their lawsuit against Mamie Mitchell. In his ruling, Judge Michael E. Whitaker stated that there was insufficient evidence in Mitchell’s camp to support the idea that the producers knew Alec Baldwin intended to aim the gun and fire it once first assistant director Dave Halls handed it to him. “Mitchell’s claims would prove otherwise: the only person who knew Baldwin would fire the gun was Baldwin,” Whitaker wrote. Baldwin remains a defendant in this case.

While this is a major victory for the producers of Rust, this legal battle is far from over. Deadline notes that given that ruling didn’t dismiss Mitchell’s claims against him, Baldwin still has work to do as the one-year mark since the shooting nears. He plans to try to dismiss the claims against him, so a hearing with Judge Whitaker is scheduled for November 1, 2022. Baldwin claims that he did not pull the trigger on the “Rust” gun, although forensic evidence collected by the FBI in August 2022 has shown the opposite (via NPR).

Time will tell what becomes of this whole situation, but it stands to reason that the legal issues surrounding “Rust” as a whole are unlikely to go away anytime soon.